jenna hartel

This paper analyzes the use of visual data within the field of information science, through a case study of work by Laurel Swan (Brunel University) and Alex Taylor (Microsoft Research). For several years, these researchers have utilized visual methods to conduct highly original, ethnographic investigations of information technology in home environments (Taylor & Swan, 2004, 2005; Swan & Taylor, 2005, 2008; Swan, Taylor & Harper, 2008). Drawing upon these papers, the author reveals how Swan and Taylor employ an approach to ethnographic analysis and writing from the handbook Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes (Emerson, Fretz & Shaw, 1995); but as an innovation, they replace textual with visualdata. To explain, Swan and Taylor use photographs variously as “themes” and/or“excerpts” that link their field observations to concepts of relevance in the academic literature. Further, they marshal photographs into “excerpt-commentary units” which are the building blocks for evocative “tales of the field” (Van Maanen, 1988). Stepping back to view Swan and Taylor’s analytical technique holistically, the paper shows how photographs are employed in parallel with descriptive fieldnotes and interview transcripts. The conclusion casts Swan and Taylor’s project as a fruitful example of a flexible, mixed-method epistemological stance involving both positivist empirical and interpretive elements (Prosser & Loxley, 2008).